By: den_quixote

den_quixote — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:19:00 +0000

This is anything but the best film we never saw. I agree that it is worth watching for the performances by Robert Randolph (as Bo Diddley) and Chi McBride (as Willie Dixon) but there is very little else to recommend it. The period cars are great and the recreated music is better than average, but the characters are very poorly drawn, their story is mundane and not historically accurate and there is no reason at all to imply that Leonard Chess had an affair with Etta James that broke up his marriage if it is not true. If it is true, then why not say so. As for “At Last,” that may have been the song we most closely associate with her now, but that was not the case in 1956 or so when she recorded “Wallflower (Dance With Me Henry).” So the timeline does not annoy me so much as the lack of accuracy. Watching Muddy, Bo, Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry (never mentioned in the movie), Etta James, Jimmy Rogers and the like in old footage is a lot more fun.

Comments on: The Best Film You Never Saw

By: den_quixote